The present inventor has been working for many years in the field of removal of contaminants from water streams without addition of chlorine or other disinfecting chemicals thereto. Without implying any limitation on the scope of the invention disclosed and claimed herein, the inventor's efforts have been largely directed to removal of dissolved and ionized compounds and contaminants by exposing the water stream to one or more of ionized gas molecules, strong electric or magnetic fields, and metal ions, all of which tend, under appropriate circumstances, to "coagulate" or "coalesce" the contaminants into larger particles, which can then be removed from the water stream by physical or electrically and/or magnetically stimulated filtration processes. These techniques are referred to broadly as electro-coalescence and magnetic separation (ECMS); the present invention relates to further improvements therein.
More specifically, the inventor, in some cases with other inventors, has been granted U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,382,866, 4,562,286, 4,655,933, and 4,562,014, all directed generally to this subject matter. U.S. Pat. No. 4,382,866 to the present inventor is relevant to one aspect of the present invention in that the "'866" patent shows a particular electrochemical system for liquid filtration useful in desalinization of water which, as indicated above, is one of the particular water decontamination processes addressed by the present invention. In the '866 patent, desalinization is accomplished by passing a stream of water through a fine-fiber filter element disposed between metallic supporting screens on either side thereof. The screens are electrically isolated from one another, and have a potential difference applied thereacross such that an electric field exists across the filter element. The effect is to remove very finely divided solids, particulates, and materials in solution, including ions of various salts, from the water. Thus, the '866 patent shows a system useful in desalinization of water. However, the specific structure of the filter element discussed therein was not amenable to convenient back-flushing, such that the useful life of the filter was limited.
More recently, the inventor and another filed copending application Ser. No. 08/200,749 on Feb. 23, 1994, and the inventor filed Ser. No. 08/326,339 on Oct. 20, 1994.
Ser. No. 08/200,749, which is incorporated herein by this reference, is directed, as indicated generally above, to removal of contaminants from a water stream by adding ionized gases and other materials to a water stream and subjecting the water stream to a combination of electric and magnetic fields under specific flow conditions. Without limiting the scope of the claims thereof, the principal component disclosed therein is a device referred to in the present application for convenience as a "turbulator". In this device, a water stream to be treated is thoroughly mixed with a stream of ionized coagulant materials in air, introduced into the water stream in a venturi. The water stream is introduced into a large-diameter bottom section of a vertically elongated vessel in communication with an annular space between inner and outer tubes, the annular space terminating at an upper enlarged chamber. The water and ionized coagulant stream is introduced off-axis such that the water tends to travel spirally upwardly in the annular space. In the upper enlarged chamber, the stream enters an upper open end of the inner tube and moves downwardly to exit the turbulator unit. A coil is provided around the central section of the device, so as to subject the water stream to a relatively intense magnetic field during its passage through the unit. As will be indicated more specifically below, the "turbulator" unit may be used in systems disclosed and claimed herein.
Ser. No. 08/326,339, also incorporated herein by reference, is again directed to removal of contaminants from water streams by mixing ionized materials with the water stream and subjecting the stream to electric and magnetic fields where appropriate. This application discloses an apparatus for generating a stream of ionized gas from the air, and also shows a convenient device for introducing metal ions into the water stream, both of which tend to coagulate contaminants for subsequent physical removal by filtration. Furthermore, the metal ions form bactericidal, viricidal, and fungicidal compounds in situ, so as to efficiently remove biological contaminants from the water stream. The teachings of this application are also applicable to the present invention, in particular where they may be useful in connection with certain specific contaminant streams to be purified.
The present invention, as discussed above, relates to improved electro-coalescent/magnetic separation (ECMS) systems for purification of various types of contaminated water streams, including desalinization of salt water. Systems for so doing incorporate specific devices shown in the two previous co-pending applications, as well as novel components disclosed herein.